Breast cancer Key Facts

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK.
• The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer is 1 in 8 for women in the UK.
• In the UK in 2010 more than 49,500 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, that’s around 136 women a day.
• Around 400 men in the UK were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010.
• Female breast cancer incidence rates in Great Britain have increased by almost 70% since the mid-1970s.
• In the last ten years, female breast cancer incidence rates in the UK have increased by 6%.
• Around 8 in 10 breast cancers are diagnosed in women aged 50 and over.
• In the UK in financial year 2009/10 the NHS breast screening programmes detected around 16,500 cases of breast cancer.
• In the European Union (EU-27) more than 332,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2008.
• Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 1.38 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.

Read more in-depth breast cancer incidence statistics.

section reviewed 07/11/12
section updated 07/11/12

• Breast cancer survival rates have been improving for forty years. More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before.
• In the 1970s around 5 out of 10 women with breast cancer survived the disease beyond five years. Now it's more than 8 out of 10.
• Women diagnosed with breast cancer are now twice as likely to survive their disease for at least ten years than those diagnosed forty years ago.
• More than three-quarters of women diagnosed with breast cancer now survive their disease for at least ten years or more.
• Almost 2 out of 3 women with breast cancer now survive their disease beyond 20 years.
• More than 90% of women diagnosed with breast cancer at the earliest stage survive their disease for at least five years. This figure is around 15% for those women who are diagnosed with the most advanced stage disease.

Read more in-depth breast cancer survival statistics.

section reviewed 22/02/13
section updated 02/10/12

• In 2010 in the UK around 11,600 women died from breast cancer, that's around 32 every day.
• Around 75 men died from breast cancer in the UK in 2010.
• In 2010 in the UK around 1,200 deaths from breast cancer occurred in women aged under 50.
• Since peaking in the late 1980s breast cancer death rates have fallen by almost 40% in the UK.
• In the last ten years death rates for breast cancer in the UK have fallen by almost a fifth.
• In the UK breast cancer is now the second most common cause of death from cancer in women after lung cancer.
• More than half of breast cancer deaths in the UK are in women aged over 70.
• In the European Union (EU-27), around 89,800 women died from breast cancer in 2008.
• Worldwide it is estimated that more than 459,000 women died from breast cancer in 2008.

Read more in-depth breast cancer mortality statistics.

section reviewed 22/02/13
section updated 10/05/12

• Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes increase breast cancer risk, although these gene faults are rare and account for a small proportion of cases.
• Women with a mother, sister or daughter diagnosed with breast cancer have almost double the risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer themselves.
• Risk increases with the number of first-degree relatives diagnosed with breast cancer, but even so, eight out of nine breast cancers occur in women without a family history of breast cancer.
• Being obese increases risk of postmenopausal breast cancer by up to 30%.
• Around 9% of cases of breast cancer in the UK are linked to excess bodyweight.
• Women currently using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have a 66% increased risk of breast cancer.
• Use of HRT has fallen in the UK in recent years, although around 3% of breast cancer cases in the UK each year are linked to its use.
• The risk of breast cancer in current users of oral contraceptives (OC) is increased by around a quarter but only 1% of all the breast cancer cases in the UK each year are linked to OC use.
• Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer - and risk increases the more someone drinks. Around 3,100 cases of breast cancer in the UK each year are linked to alcohol consumption.
• A more active lifestyle reduces breast cancer risk. Around 1,700 cases of breast cancer in the UK each year are linked to being physically inactive.

Read more in-depth breast cancer risk factors.

section reviewed 22/02/13
section updated 10/05/12

1. European age-standardised    2. Adults diagnosed    3. Latest statistics available

More detailed breast cancer statistics can be found using these links: incidence, survival, mortality, risk factors and screening.

section reviewed 22/02/13
section updated 07/11/12